Bethlehem and Boston: That amazing thing called running

In Boston, the bombings brought out the most generous community spirit among strangers torn apart by violence. In Bethlehem, Israel restricted who could participate in the marathon. But as Gisha’s Sari Bashi writes, dozens of Israeli runners expressed support for letting Gazans participate, emphasizing the hope and purity embodied in the marathon and speaking of their identification with people who challenge their human abilities by doing that amazing thing called ‘running.’

Runners race along the Israeli separation wall as hundreds of Palestinian and international athletes took part in the the inaugural Palestine Marathon which took place in Bethlehem, West Bank, April 21, 2013. Under the title “Right to Movement”, runners had to complete two laps of the same route, as organizers were unable to find a single course of 42 uninterrupted kilometers under Palestinian Authority control.

The first marathon was held in Bethlehem on Sunday, as my colleagues have reported (and photographed, beautifully). The marathon is moment of great personal achievement, but marathons also sometimes become a forum for highlighting other social issues – fundraising for charities and raising awareness of social causes, for example.

This week, the United States weeps as it struggles to maintain the ideal of marathons as a joyous community event, in the face of the horror in Boston. I too was shattered by seeing an event that brings out the most generous community spirit among strangers torn apart by violence. But in Bethlehem, it was inevitable that the personal joy of runners would at best balance out the deep political frustrations that the race inevitably highlighted: competitors ran in the shadow of a great concrete wall, were unable to find an unbroken 42-kilomter (26.2 mile) stretch of land, and 26 runners from Gaza, whose own marathon was recently canceled, were not allowed to participate, because the Defense Ministry would not let them cross to the West Bank.

Here is one act of resistance from Israelis: In response to the latter, Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, appealed to Israelis to appeal to the Defense Ministry directly, to reverse its decision. Perhaps one unintended consequence of the policy was that some Israelis have found a means of identifying with this particular hardship – just one of so many – that Palestinians must live with. After the Bethlehem marathon, the director of Gisha, Sari Bashi, wrote the following letter and has agreed to re-publish it here. Proper disclosure: Bashi is an ultra marathon runner; she is also the person who inspired me to run marathons – to achieve something I never thought possible and which has brought great inspiration to my own life.

I have also provided a free translation of a few of the letters written by Israelis in response to her appeal.

The response from the runners was amazing. Dozens wrote moving letters to the Ministry of Defense, emphasizing the hope and purity embodied in the marathon and speaking of their identification with people who challenge their human abilities by doing that amazing thing called “running.” We posted some of these letters, which fill me with a sense of pride in the community of Israeli runners.

“In Ancient Greece, they used to stop all the wars prior to the Olympics, and allow free passage for the players and the supporters. In my opinion, we should learn from that.” –Alex Solan, marathon runner.

“To me it seems so simple. This is not about religion, right versus left, or geography. It’s just people and their desire to run.” –Michael Spivak, marathon runner.

“I can’t come up with a reason to prevent people from running in an event that they trained so long and hard for. I can imagine that that it might just be possible for things like this to become a bridge. I hope that one fine day, I’ll be able to participate too.” –Ilan Zisser, marathon runner

Sari herself wrote: “Life in the shadow of a conflict is hard for Palestinians and Israelis. But running a marathon can at least provide one beautiful moment of human effort and realization of athletic potential.”

Unfortunately, the Defense Ministry refused to reverse its decision. The marathon was held in Bethlehem without the Gaza runners, among them a female runner, Sanaa. In my opinion, this is a missed opportunity to do something that is simply good – for runners who trained for months for a marathon that was canceled, for a female runner who can’t race in Gaza because of the restrictions the government places on women’s participation, and for Israelis, who from a very human place, mobilized to try and help their Palestinian neighbors run in the only Palestinian marathon they have left.

Because of the Israeli holiday last week, we had very little time to act. This type of request has been approved by the Defense Ministry in the past, and I believe we have a good chance to succeed next time.

What can be done in the meantime? I was pleased by the discussion that developed within the running community about Palestinian athletes and our relationship with the people who live in the Gaza Strip, a discussion that remained respectful, didn’t necessarily always reflect agreement, but rather created an honest exchange of opinions and a willingness to listen to one another. I am not surprised that the optimistic, principled and supportive nature of Israeli runners found expression also in the way they handled their differences of opinion.

I invite you to continue the discussion, learn more about the policy on the Gaza Strip and share with others.

I am disappointed that Sanaa, Nader and their friends did not run in Bethlehem yesterday, but I’m very proud of the Israeli runners who supported their request. Next time, we’ll be able to get them to their race.

Looking forward to seeing you on the running trail.

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COMMENTS

Kolumn9

TuesdayApril 23, 2013

Yes, if Israel had allowed Gazans to run in the West Bank it would have been presented as a great victory in the struggle against Israel. Not a positive word would have been said by anyone, especially not anyone at 972mag.

The idea that this marathon is about running is complete garbage. It is a symbolic race put in for the purposes of PR by the Palestinians. The organizers are pretty explicit about this. The amount of nationalist flagwaving and sloganeering that accompanied the marathon overshadowed any ridiculous idea that the event was some kind of apolitical sporting occasion.

Reply to Comment

Joe

TuesdayApril 23, 2013

That seem to me to be a self-defeating way to talk. Absolutely anything can be painted as a ‘PR win’. Allowing Palestinians to visit their grandparents in a neighbouring village? PR win. Allowing passage for students from Gaza to study in international universities? PR win.

Where exactly do you get off? What, actually, can Palestinians be allowed to do – as human beings – without you claiming it is a PR stunt?

And so what if there is nationalistic flagwaving anyway? Are you saying that Israel never waves flags? That other countries never energetically support their sportsmen?

Really, I’ve no idea why you think it is so important to destroy any concept of nationalism amongst Palestinians.

Reply to Comment

Kolumn9

TuesdayApril 23, 2013

PR in this case is a way of pursuing political objectives through creating events that are explicitly designed to present the political objectives in the most harmless ways possible. In this case people like Dahia paint this event as a sporting occasion even though the objective of the organizers was to get media attention and get a couple of photos of runners running next to the security wall. This is an apolitical sporting event like the ‘playground’ built ‘apolitically’ a mile away from Bilin right next to where clashes take place between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian youth is a playground.

Reply to Comment

The Trespasser

TuesdayApril 23, 2013

>What, actually, can Palestinians be allowed to do – as human beings – without you claiming it is a PR stunt?

Declaring that they want to coexist peacefully with Jews.

>Really, I’ve no idea why you think it is so important to destroy any concept of nationalism amongst Palestinians.

Because Palestinian Arab nationalism is based on assumption that Jews have no right to have homeland in Palestine.

Reply to Comment

JG

WednesdayApril 24, 2013

Is there any chance that next version 0.2 of Hasbarabot can build more and better phrases? This model gets boring with it’s limited mindset.

Reply to Comment

The Trespasse

WednesdayApril 24, 2013

>Is there any chance that next version 0.2 of Hasbarabot can build more and better phrases?

No.

>This model gets boring with it’s limited mindset.

Don’t like the truth, huh?

Reply to Comment

Joe

WednesdayApril 24, 2013

Really, nothing else.

I wonder if Palestinians think the same about IDF policies – or would they be justified in seeing such statements as PR?

People like Dahlia paint this event as a way of exiting the predefintions which others would have us ever live. Life is not solely about racial conflict, and not every life of an other race is racist towards you, K9.

If you are not a label but single person, you are turning very sour.

Reply to Comment

Charles-Jerusalem

WednesdayApril 24, 2013

To the Author,
If I remember well, there was a jerusalem maraton. The PA called the Palestinians people to boycott this event.
So I suggest that you keep your naive ideas about the magic of running for something else, because here the message of the PA was clear: no peace, no recognition, no normalization.

Actually, the Jerusalem marathon is not open to Palestinians. Although part of it ran through east Jerusalem, which was occupied in 1967, Israel does not allow Palestinians to enter either side of Jerusalem. That’s part of the reason why the Bethlehem marathon was so important – it’s the only Palestinian marathon available, after the Gaza marathon was canceled because of Hamas’s refusal to let women run.

Best,
Sari Bashi

Reply to Comment

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Dahlia Scheindlin is a leading international public opinion analyst and strategic consultant based in Tel Aviv, specializing in progressive causes, political and social campaigns in over a dozen countries, including new/transitional democracies and peace/conflict research in Israel, with expertise in Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In Israel, she works for a wide range of local and international organizations dealing with Israeli-Palestinian conflict issues, peacemaking, democracy, religious identity and internal social issues in Israeli society.

Dahlia holds a PhD in political science from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral research focused on unrecognized (de facto) states. She has been an adjunct lecturer at the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University and currently teaches adjunct at Tel Aviv University’s Political Science Department.

She is also a former columnist for the Jerusalem Report magazine and has published in the New York Times, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, Dissent Magazine, Open Democracy and the Forward, among other outlets; she is a regular media commentator and guest lecturer.

About +972 Magazine

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.

+972 is an independent, blog-based web magazine. It was launched in August 2010, resulting from a merger of a number of popular English-language blogs dealing with life and politics in Israel and Palestine.